OK, he's only a Yank Abroad for 3 weeks at the present ... "Sebastian Lletget, a young midfielder on the Sporting Santa Clara U14 Boys squad, will depart for England to train for three weeks with the West Ham United Youth Development Team." I saw him play last month, he's fricking good, the best 13 year old that I've yet seen. Excellent (and flashy) technically, plus he plays quickly and uses his teammates very well for a boy of his age.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Nice catch, JohnR. Here's a link from the youth club's web site: http://www.santaclarasporting.com/news.html#national I believe it's him on the right below: Man, he's young.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Well, he's 13! Actually, he's one of the older U14s (autumn '92) and is pretty well developed for his age. By U14 standards, he's fairly imposing physically, although that's not his game.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial How did he get noticed by West Ham? I thought a player needed a work permit or have parents from England to go to any of their academies. Or is this just like attending one of their camps for a short stay? Thanks.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial You need a work permit only for work (aka a pro contract). Training is unpaid per se, though clubs could cover the expenses, as Hamburg is doing with Preston Zimmerman.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Hard to tell. He's on the U.S. ODP National scene, plus it seems that his club has some kind of connection. I dunno, word got around. He's hard to miss if you see him play ... a friend of mine from Southern California (400 miles to the south and a different state as far as youth soccer is concerned) has known about him for 2 years now.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Yes, but is he as good as the best 12-year old you have seen?
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Now you're mocking me! Having missed Freddy Adu in his prime, I can confidently say Yes. But in seriousness, I've almost certainly seen at least one current 13 year old (and probably several) who will eventually turn professional. Last year, I saw most of the top players in the Midwest at this age group, as well as a number of East Coast and SoCal hotshots. Friend of mine noticed Sebastian a couple of years back when he was an 11 year old at Surf Cup, when he bicycle kicked a driven cross across the goal mouth. You don't see that every day in U11 soccer.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Actually I was alluding to Charles Renken. As far as I can tell you were the first to mention young Renken on these boards, and he might have been eleven at the time.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Ah ... but I've never seen him play. Charles is 12 now, and apparently was combining nicely with Sebastian at the recent '92 National Camp. I am told that Charles like Sebastian (and unlike so many of our national team types) also demonstrates good vision and works well with his teammates. But again, I can't comment directly. The darned kid lives on the other side of Illinois, 300 miles from me.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial What kind of player Sebstian is? Ronaldihno? Let's start dreaming.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial The only Santa Clara Sporting connection that I'm aware of is the official connection with Lisbon Sporting. I'll try to check him out this weekend at the tournament they mention he is playing at before he goes to West Ham. Sporting U14 is playing just down the street from my house. This is the third kid in a week from Santa Clara based clubs going overseas, Omphroy, Marcellini, and Lletget. I may be able to dig up some more info on Marcellini as well.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Bone scan! I can see it already -- in 2009, Bigsoccer will have an "Official Sebastian Lletget Puppy Killing" thread.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial It sounds Catalan or possibly French to me, but Lletget is listed on the 50 member U15 roster. Maybe West Ham observed him at the USSF U15 training camp from 7/30-8/5. www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_281204.html
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Born there or his parents are from there? And is he a US citizen? (And, just to get this out of the way now, is his dad obsessed with him playing for Argentina and fostered that dream off on his kid, who has bought into it because of their culture and passion for the sport? )
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial tincho? Are you similar to rancho? All kidding aside, congrat to Lletget. Hopefully, he will have a bright future and won't pull a Rossi on us.